[nefarious.lover]

I feel left out of the actually posting content loop.


Blind Bolts
Level 10
Additional Effect: Blindness

You don't get Racc rings until 16, but; If you're soloing DC/EM/T mobs at early levels, these are still viable, capped skill is pretty much enough to hit any mob at early levels especially if it's not VT IT.

Later on, and endgame, a mob having lower accuracy can be a huge boost in your ability to do damage. Less time casting shadows, less time using bloody bolts to regain HP, more time in TP gear, less time in EVA gear. Some mobs are exceedingly hard to solo, in my experiences, even with a top tier EVA set, without the mob being blinded. Proc results may vary, but usually if it can proc, it will proc if you hit.

Good bolt to open up fights with, or pull with. Though only if you're soloing or making a long distance pull where you may lose all shadows.

Acid Bolts
Level 15
Additional Effect: Defense Down

You still don't have Racc rings yet, by the time you can use these, but they're invaluable from the moment you get them.

Right up until the point where you're Treelo, and you would arguably lose DPS in a significant way by using an Xbow over a Bomblette, these bolts never go away and never stop being useful.

12.5% defense down. It dispels most generic defense buffs, including but not limited to the defense buff crabs do. Which is a big deal in the dunes and qufim.

Endgame myself and other THF like to open up with these after a feint on "Big" mobs. Short zerg fights where things will be over before the effect wears, you're effectively adding significant amounts of damage to everyone's attacks .

After searching Wiki extensively for all sources of generic Defense Down debuffs, I've concluded that more likely than not the additional effect on Acid Bolts are Wind based; Which would explain why they rarely proc on Colibri mobs. They honestly seem to proc on just about fucking everything else; including Nyzul Isle bosses. Unless you're fighting a timed fight, or in a situation where your ability to kill a mob fast is what determines if you survive or not, Acid Bolts are a luxury, but they can make life easier and fights faster.

Sleep Bolts
Level 20
Additional Effect: Sleep

Do Not Leave Home Without.
These are so valuable. Assuming you're using a low delay Xbow. (Read: Assuming you're not an asstard who thinks bolts/xbow should have anything to do with doing damage on THF) you can fire these off fast enough to stun some of the following common moves:
Bomb Toss
Meltdown
Self-destruct
Sleep bolts can/do also stun/stop magic casting.

Useful the second you can use them, solo, exp, events, everything.

Basically, if a mob readies a move for a long time, and you're watching for it to use a TP move, you can stun it.
Yes. Stun. On THF. Nifty right? Go fucking practice it you gimpy faggot.

In addition to stunning TP moves, you can use these to "Lock" a mob down. In really really shitty situations in Nyzul, where shadow recast was an issue, I've had mobs that sleep bolts proced on. (While weak your speed of ranged attack is not diminished, and the ability of bolts to proc is not diminished either.) And I've spammed sleep bolts on a mob to keep it locked down, it slows it's rate of attack, if you time it so it lands right after a melee hits it, it stays sleeping until it gets hit again. If you keep just hammering it with bolts you're "Stealing" chunks of it's attack speed, assuming that you don't have a monk hundred fisting it, even with several melee hitting a mob, it can still be helpful, if you already start a ranged attack, and then a mob readies a fast TP move afterward, your bolt might stun it. You can take credit for it, but it's rather serendipitous, though none the less still useful sometimes.

(God this guy loves sleep bolts, wtf.)

Shut up. I didn't even get to the good part yet.

You might be familiar with using sleep bolts to SA>>WS mid fight.

What you're not familiar with (Ok, some of you might be) is the fact that you don't need to disengage and reengage to do it.

1) Prep sleepbolt. I have a macro for each bolt, just to equip it.
2) Unlock from the mob.
3) You have 100 TP, you are ready to SA>>WS, your SA timer is up.
3.5) (Optional) Use a separate macro that just swaps into +Slow gear like Heca, this widens your window to get in back of the mob and SA>>WS if you find yourself waking the mob before you can SA>>WS.
4) Wait until the instant you start the "I'm swinging" animation.
5) Hit your RA macro as fast as you can, then move to your SA>>WS macro if you're on a controller.
6) Run through the mob, or to the left/right of the mob.
7) As you pass it, and run a little past it, lock on again.
(This is why I strongly recommend playing with a controller for THF. There's a certain finesse that I cannot imagine existing easily on a keyboard.)
8) As you lock on, swing around in back of the mob as you're hitting your SA>>WS macro.

This takes time, effort, practice, and then more of all three.

But it's worth it. The ability to utilize SA mid-fight when soloing is large chunks of additional DPS.


And last but not least, when soloing anything that sleep bolts proc against, you have almost no excuse for getting pummeled, because you can see the need for a break coming, your shadow timers are down, and so you pop a sleep bolt, and gain a little time.

Last but not least, you -can- kinda sorta crowd control with sleep bolts. I have kept several mobs in dynamis slept until mages could get to them. Usually ones that were HITTING mages. This is a much more practical solution than trying to get hate off a mage that very well may have an assload more CE and VE than you'll be able to generate before you MPK them. It also helps eliminate the "Accidentally waking mobs" thing; At least if you dink most mobs with a sleep bolt and wake them from normal sleep, they're still sleeping.

I've had some sticky agro situations where I kept literally 4 puks slept while I fought a 5th. WHM friend (<3, sorry hun, you're an agro magnet) agro'd a puk, then another, then got knocked back into 2 more while I was fighting and sleeping those, then another wandered over and agro'd. Mostly I just spammed bolts at them in a methodical order, it worked, I kept hate, when they woke it was just an EVA tanking fight until I could hit them again with a bolt.

Why share all this? So you might see some practical applications for a largely underestimated aspect of the THF job.

Venom Bolts
Level 25
Additional Effect: Poison

Um, these are worthless except for maybe against mobs you can't sleep, for additional DoT damage.

Or I guess MPK'ing parties with yellow mobs at competitive camps.

Oh, steal my bird will you? Well, elegy is way more hate than my bolt and you have initial agro, yellow is fair game. Good luck sleeping it now, fucker!


Bloody Bolts
Level 25
Additional Effect: HP Drain

Works on everything but undead. (I'm sure there's exceptions.)

Amount drained is an INT check you v.s. mob.

Int has been documented to boost the amount drained.

The goldfish in sea take double drain damage while open mouth, meaning you can drain for like 180 a pop.


Something to note is that the drain effect is for once additional damage. Like the BLM spell Drain, and unlike Drain Samba, it actually takes HP from the mob, meaning when you go to the Jungle as a 25 thf with a full RACC set and bloody bolts, and drain mandies for 50+ HP, in addition to a 20 point hit of damage, you're doing like 70 damage a hit, or something. It's significant.

This is how you survive sometimes. This is how you win long fights when you have mobs that do AoE or TP moves that ignore shadows; this is how you get your HP back and keep fighting.

I really shouldn't need to explain the concept of "Get health back" too much.

Useful solo mostly, duo somewhat, not so important in parties but I will toss out a few bloody bolts to save my life from poison or just in general in events.




Regarding Xbows:

There is no discussion or debate; Whatever has the lowest delay/most racc is what you use.

I could care less about if it has agi or dex or gives head. Ziska's is the best xbow for thf, in the game. Period.

You're not serious about solo on thf without one.



Happy hunting.

[JackalTheManCat]

Venom bolts also have the highest damage rating (i think?) of any thief can use. Not that it's often relevant, but if you're trying to DD with bolts they're the ones to spam.

It has only ever been an issue for me back when worm's turn BCNM was in vogue and all i had to 40+ was THF and WHM

[Kaparu]

You would make an entire thread about bolts.

[nefarious.lover]

Venom bolts also have the highest damage rating (i think?) of any thief can use. Not that it's often relevant, but if you're trying to DD with bolts they're the ones to spam.

It has only ever been an issue for me back when worm's turn BCNM was in vogue and all i had to 40+ was THF and WHM

Yes, I meant to mention Worm's Turn, although you should really just finish NIN to 40 and do PCC BCNM as most of the shit in Worm's Turn isn't worth dick anymore.

Also good for that one Jailer that you kite a lot that people like rangers for. I did more damage with bolts than I did with chasing it trying to SA.

[nefarious.lover]

Matt, considering how often I get asked about bolts, or people mention lack of a RACC set, or are clueless about using them, this was the most worthwhile topic I think I could bring up.

[Kaparu]

I's only kiddin' baby




Preach it sista'

[treelo]

Also good for that one Jailer that you kite a lot that people like rangers for. I did more damage with bolts than I did with chasing it trying to SA.

/SAM.

[Kenja]

Nifty thread. Anyone that is or is planning on being Thief should know the importance of bolts and their varied uses. Kudos Nef.

[synthetic]

Bolts - Hidden effect -6acc/-6att

[Dyra]

QUOTE
Also good for that one Jailer that you kite a lot that people like rangers for. I did more damage with bolts than I did with chasing it trying to SA.


/SAM.

THF/RNG

Shark Gun + Iron Bullet

[Cbarra]

I fucking lawl'd at Sharkgun. Best shit ever. But yeah, xbow is a must for soloing, as is some good EVA gear. bloody bolts are like fucking welfare checks, they always bail you out. Sleep are great for stunning and for SA, Blind are self explanatory, Acid are too, and Venom are meh for the most part. I don't really use my Xbow for anything in endgame unless I need to pull Faust or am bored, but yeah, it's pro for solo. I support this thread whole-heartedly and every THF should read this and lvl xbow as they trek to 75.

[Symbios]

Venom bolts kick ass for skilling up, because they're cheap as hell.

...What? They are. =p

[Cbarra]

Yeah, lol, but in all fairness I think that is about it.

[eltio]

Venom Bolts: good for 1-shot farming, if it doesn't kill with high damage the poison likely will. Also if you happen to be /rng for Barrage.

Blind Bolts: In my experience they don't last long enough to be worth it. Usually, I'd rather be swinging daggers than waiting for a blind bolt to stick, and having to reapply frequently.

Also, saying "the only thing that matters in an xbow is delay and r.acc, don't go for AGI or any other stat" is just silly IMO. There are situations where your function will be pulling and DD where it's also not worth your time trying to land bolts, since the mob will be dead. In these cases, if you can get some more damage with your bow/xbow stats, then go for it, obviously.

Also, didn't know that xbow could stop Bomb Toss, never tried meltdown, just use sleep bolts for -aga spells. One thing tho, does the mob have to be asleep at any time after the mob used the move, or does it have to be asleep when the mob would've used the move?

[nefarious.lover]

You must do it the same way as any other stun; after the move has been readied.


There are some mobs that you will poke to death slowly, between utsu recasts. These are the ones you are using blind bolts on.


There are no +dex xbow that I'm aware of.

If you're not pulling or needing status bolts for any reason I'd be using bomblette.

If you're pulling, you might as well pull fast and have status bolts available. I can't think of a situation in sky/sea or anywhere else where I'd choose a few points of agi over having the fastest and most accurate xbow available to me.

[Jaybb]

One thing tho, does the mob have to be asleep at any time after the mob used the move, or does it have to be asleep when the mob would've used the move?

If you sleep/stun a mob anytime while its readying or casting it will be interrupted. Unless its a brd, then it has to be asleep when the song would go off.

[Thiefkiller]

Sleep Bolts - Solo Sneak attack WS.

I actually find it easier/quicker (all around better) to do this without unlocking from the mob at all.

I have seperat individual macros for sneak attack and WS's that are next to each other on one row. (I never combine the ja and ws in one macro for solo)

1-Land feint if its up
2-ws gearswap
3-Wait for an attack round anmiation to start and the split second it does, spam your sleep bolt macro
4-sleep bolt lands
5-as close as you can be to the mob, start swinging around to the back (while locked on this can be done very fast) all the while you are moving, spam your sneak attack macro. You will get one or two messages that say "Unable to use job ability"
6-as soon as you are in postion, sneak attack anmiation fires, start spamming your ws macro and voila. Solo WS.

And best of all, its very fluid. It takes practice, but once you get the hang of it. Doesnt feel time consuming and cumbersom to land a solo SA WS with Sleep bolts.

And yes, it can be done with the lowest delay daggers in the game, very rarely missing, if ever.

[Shamaya]

Dude I'd make an entire thread about bolts too. Good guide timmahhhhhhhh.

3) You have 100 TP, you are ready to SA>>WS, your SA timer is up.
4) Wait until the instant you start the "I'm swinging" animation.

You forgot the 3.5 where you swap into your WS equip before the swinging, to give you a larger window of time to SA>>WS before your next swing.

I used to try the whole sleep/disengage thing, but after nefarious' recommended this method to me I really haven't gone back.

[nefarious.lover]

Sleep Bolts - Solo Sneak attack WS.

I actually find it easier/quicker (all around better) to do this without unlocking from the mob at all.

I have seperat individual macros for sneak attack and WS's that are next to each other on one row. (I never combine the ja and ws in one macro for solo)

1-Land feint if its up
2-ws gearswap
3-Wait for an attack round anmiation to start and the split second it does, spam your sleep bolt macro
4-sleep bolt lands
5-as close as you can be to the mob, start swinging around to the back (while locked on this can be done very fast) all the while you are moving, spam your sneak attack macro. You will get one or two messages that say "Unable to use job ability"
6-as soon as you are in postion, sneak attack anmiation fires, start spamming your ws macro and voila. Solo WS.

And best of all, its very fluid. It takes practice, but once you get the hang of it. Doesnt feel time consuming and cumbersom to land a solo SA WS with Sleep bolts.

And yes, it can be done with the lowest delay daggers in the game, very rarely missing, if ever.

What you just described is a less fluid, more sloppy, spammy version of what I already posted.



I'll FRAPS what I do sometime. You can do the same. We can compare mean-time-to-WS between the landing of the bolts and SA>>WS.

Your way is better than nothing and better than disengaging but I whole-heartedly stand by running to the side and unlocking v.s. side-stepping, which I don't need to tell anyone with eyes; is slower.